A federal judge refused to dismiss a class action lawsuit alleging LG sold washers with a defect that causes them to become unbalanced.

Lead plaintiffs, Steve Marcom and Davis McGeown, claim in their class action lawsuit that LG knew of the defect, but sold the washers anyway.

The plaintiffs allege LG violated their warranty to consumers and also committed fraud by continuing to sell defective washers. LG also violated a number of state laws, according to the LG class action lawsuit.

Both plaintiffs say they purchased LG washers in 2013; however, the washers were affected by a defect that caused them to become imbalanced. Due to the defect, the plaintiffs claim one load of laundry could take upwards of five hours or more to complete.

LG was aware of the defect, say the plaintiffs, as shown by a service bulletin distributed by the company to dealers that same year as well as numerous customer complaints.

LG attempted to have the class action dismissed, arguing the plaintiffs had not adequately established that the company knew of the alleged defects. LG said the service bulletin should be disregarded because it would be bad policy for companies to face liability for an attempt to respond to problems. U.S. District Judge Claire C. Cecchi disagreed with LG, however, and refused to completely toss the lawsuit.

“[The plaintiffs] have adequately pleaded that defendant knew of the imbalance defects before plaintiffs purchased their washing machines, and that said defects were material, yet defendant failed to disclose them,” noted the judge in her order.

The judge also pointed out that the plaintiffs alleged that LG knew or should have known about the defect given the online consumer complaints the plaintiffs included in their LG class action complaint.

“The bulletin also appears to describe both imbalance defects and gives guidance on what to tell consumers who complain of these defects,” said the judge in her order.

Judge Cecchi did trim class action claims made under New Jersey law and claims for injunctive and equitable relief.

According to the class action lawsuit, not only did LG know of the defect, it did not provide consumers a way to fix the problem. The plaintiffs allege that they both received communications from LG describing the defect, but it did not provide a fix.

“Here, as alleged, LG’s duty to disclose arose because it had ‘knowledge of a material fact not easily discoverable’ by Morcom before Morcom purchased his machine on February 9, 2013,” noted the judge in her order upholding the LG class action lawsuit claims.

The judge further noted that “a reasonable consumer would likely care to know that a washing machine would repeatedly stop in the middle of a cycle and take up to six hours to complete a single load.”

The plaintiffs are represented by Joseph LoPiccolo of Poulos LoPiccolo PC and Randee M. Matloff of Nagel Rice LLP.

The LG Defective Washer Class Action Lawsuit is Steve Morcom, et al. v. LG Electronics USA Inc., Case No. 2:16-­cv-­04833, in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey.

UPDATE: The LG Defective Washer Class Action Lawsuit was dismissed on April 25, 2019.